I previously reported that the Spiel des Jahres nominees had been selected. On Monday, the Spiel jury came back and pronounced Dixit the winner! I haven't had the opportunity to play Dixit, but from my review of the game and in discussions with people who have played it, it seems to be a subtle cross between Apples to Apples and Once Upon a Time.
The players all have a set of six cards. The cards, however, are little miniature works of art that have an array of detail and look gorgeous. Many have a dash of whimsey. See below:
The acting player says a sentence that describes his card, then like Apples to Apples, everyone puts in a picture that could be that sentence. Then everyone takes a guess as to which was the speaker's card. However, if no one guesses the speaker's card or if everybody guesses it, the speaker gets no points. So there seems to be good tension between being too vague and too precise.
I'd love to give this game a try, but I wonder how it holds up over repeated plays. If I play with my wife and a few friends, but then take it to a new group (where it's my wife, the new group, and I), I think my wife and I would have a significant advantage. We'd have prior experience with certain clues and I could help to ensure that my wife would pick my card even if other players didn't. I won't be sure if that's a real concern or not until I play so I may just be speculating nonsense. Any Dixit players want to chime in?
